Tuscan Heat Read online

  “Well, I’m coming,” Katherine said. “As soon as your father and I can get a flight out, we’ll be there.”

  Donovan could hear his father fussing in the background.

  “We don’t need to go to Italy! That boy is grown. He knows how to handle his own business, Katherine!”

  “I’m not talking to you, Senior Boudreaux!” Katherine fussed back. “I just know we’re not going to let our baby go through this mess by himself. Now call Mason and see how soon we can get on one of his planes, please! And then call Katrina and have her recommend a good attorney over there.”

  Donovan chuckled, shaking his head. “Mom, please, you don’t need to worry. We’ve got this handled.”

  “Donovan James Boudreaux, don’t you tell me not to worry! I’m the parent in this relationship. It’s my job to worry!”

  He let out a gust of air past his full lips. “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Besides, it’ll give me a chance to meet this young lady you’ve been seeing. Your brothers have told me a lot about her.”

  “You’re really going to like her. Gianna’s wonderful, Mom!”

  “You haven’t known her that long. You don’t know what she is,” his mother said matter-of-factly.

  “I know her, Mom, and I love her,” he said softly. “And you need to trust me on this.”

  There was a lengthy pause, and Donovan could visualize the expression across his mother’s face: her gaze narrowed, her lips pursed and her jaw tight. He waited for the sharp comment that would remind him once again of his place as the child in their relationship. He knew that he and his siblings could be eighty years old, and their parents would still be reminding them of the respect that was their due.

  He took a deep breath. “I promise, Mom, you won’t be disappointed,” he concluded.

  Katherine sniffled, then cleared her throat. “You have never been a disappointment. Your father and I have always been proud of you. We love you, son.”

  Donovan smiled. “Thank you,” he said. “And I love you both, too.”

  “Senior’s on the phone with Mason now. He’ll send you our flight information as soon as we know.”

  Donovan chuckled. “I guess that means I didn’t change your mind, huh?”

  His mother laughed with him. “I don’t know why you even wasted your time trying!”

  * * *

  Gianna was seated in the student quad waiting for her sister to return. Around her, college kids were enjoying the afternoon weather, lounging on the grass and benches as they discussed courses, the opposite sex, music and a host of topics that had their voices ringing with laughter through the air.

  She still didn’t have a clue what Carina had up her sleeve, but she knew enough about her sister to be just a teensy bit concerned. She’d lost count of all the stunts her twin would pull that had gotten them both in trouble over the years.

  She caught sight of her out of the corner of her eye, her look-alike moving in her direction. She carried a tray of food and was walking with two young women Gianna didn’t recognize. She stared as they approached, Carina giggling with them as if she was in her teens again. Gianna smiled brightly as the trio joined her at the picnic table where she sat.

  “Ciao!” she said brightly, nodding slightly.

  “Hello!” one of the other women responded as she helped Carina with the food.

  Carina pointed as she took a seat beside her sister. “This is Alessandra and Simona. They are both math majors here at the university. And this is my sister, Gianna. She’s a literature major.”

  Alessandra glanced from one to the other. “You two look like twins!” she exclaimed.

  Carina laughed. “Everybody says that, but she is older than I am.”

  Gianna threw Carina a look, ignoring the smirk on her sibling’s face. “I’m not that much older,” she said with a giggle.

  Alessandra nodded. “You should not cut your hair,” she said to Carina before shifting her gaze to Gianna. “I love your long curls!”

  Gianna smiled. “I wish it was straight like yours. Your hair is beautiful!”

  Alessandra tossed her blond locks over one shoulder and then the other, smiling brightly.

  Simona eyed her warily. “You actually look familiar. Where do I know you from?”

  Gianna shrugged. “Maybe we had a class together?”

  “Or maybe you saw her on the back of a book,” Carina said facetiously. “She has that kind of face.” She pursed her own lips and winked. “So do I, now that you mention it!”

  Alessandra giggled. “Simona’s not big on reading. I’m sure it couldn’t have been a book!”

  Gianna laughed, joining in the giggles.

  Carina passed her sister a sandwich and a canned soda. “Alessandra says these are the best, so I had to try them,” she said as she took a bite of her own sandwich, a meatball wedge laden with cheese. She nodded. “Oh, they are really good!”

  Alessandra’s head bobbed. “Not as good as the ones you can get in Grosseto, but very close! Grosseto has the best meatballs, I think.”

  The four women sat enjoying their meal, the conversation casual as Carina made nice with her new best friends. Gianna marveled at how easily her sister manipulated the truth, the other two women actually believing they, too, were students. She was giggling over the boys and making plans to join them on a weekend trip to Rome. Anyone else would have thought they’d been best friends since forever, instead of new acquaintances chatting for the very first time.

  Gianna was less inclined to be so nice. Despite Carina’s efforts to pull her into the conversation, wanting her to play pretend right along with her, all Gianna wanted was to smack the smug look off Alessandra’s face. The moment Carina had said she was a math major, Gianna had known who she was. Knowing the allegations the young woman had made against Donovan, the lies she had told, had Gianna seeing red, and it was difficult not to just punch the girl in her mouth. Her eyes skated back and forth between Alessandra and Simona as she forced her lips into a smile.

  Carina swiped a paper napkin across her mouth. She locked eyes with her sister, her brows lifted. “I was telling them before about your problem with your professor. How he led you on, and then you found out he was married.”

  Simona shook her head from side to side. “Gli uomini sono tutti i cani!” she muttered.

  Carina laughed. “Yes, men are all dogs!” she said in agreement.

  Gianna tried not to let her emotions show on her face. “He broke my heart,” she muttered, feigning heartbreak.

  “So what happened?” Alessandra asked. She shifted forward in her seat, resting her elbows against the table and her head in her hands.

  Gianna took a deep breath. “We were dating for months. We traveled together, and it was perfect. Then one day I was at his apartment, and we were making love when I hear the bedroom door open and this woman is suddenly screaming at us!”

  Simona slapped a hand over her mouth. “She walked in on you?”

  Gianna nodded. “We were naked in his bed. It was horrible!” she exclaimed, her tone exaggerated.

  Carina laughed. “He was bottom up and head down. I’m sure it was quite a sight!”

  The other two women laughed heartily.

  Gianna cut a look at her sister. Amusement danced in Carina’s eyes. “It wasn’t pretty,” she said.

  Simona nodded. “You should do like Alessandra. She always gets even.”

  “You waste too much time holding a grudge. Get even and move on. That’s my motto,” Alessandra noted.

  “Alessandra had a boyfriend who cheated. She got him drunk, set him up with the police chief’s daughter, then posted pictures of the two online. The police chief ran him out of town!”

  “You really did that?” Carina exclaimed. “You are my new hero!”
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  Alessandra shrugged, a devious smirk across her face. “Sometimes you just have to teach a man a lesson.”

  Simona nodded in agreement.

  “I need to be more like you.” Gianna laughed.

  “I’m always available for hire,” Alessandra said smugly.

  Carina laughed. “Do you come with references?”

  “As a matter of fact, I do,” the girl said. “I’m helping out someone now. One of my professors.”

  Gianna glanced at her sister. “Do tell!” she said, both women shifting to the edge of their seats.

  Chapter 13

  The two women sat in their car after waving their goodbyes to Simona and Alessandra. When the other car pulled out of sight, Gianna tossed up her hands in frustration.

  “Aargh!” she screamed, tight fists clenched in front of her. “Do you believe her? She was actually bragging about what she was doing!”

  Carina nodded, a wide smile across her face. “Yes, she was and it’s a good thing, too!”

  Gianna eyed her sister, confusion furrowing her brow. “Why is that a good thing?”

  “How else was I going to get it on tape?” she said, holding up a small audio recorder. She pushed the rewind button and then pushed Play. Alessandra’s voice vibrated through the space. “He’ll think twice about telling me no again!” She pushed the stop button.

  “You taped it all?” Gianna asked, her eyes widening.

  Her sister grinned. “Everything we needed.”

  Gianna threw her arms around her sister’s neck and hugged her tightly. Tears suddenly streamed down her face, a weight feeling as if it had been lifted off her shoulders. Carina hugged her back, swiping at the moisture that had pooled behind her own eyelids.

  “We’re not done yet,” Carina said as she pushed Gianna away.

  “What do you mean? We have her on tape.”

  “We do, but we have to get that Mugabe woman, too. Luckily for us, Alessandra said they were meeting at the Duomo tonight. She invited us to go along.”

  “How are we going to do that? Sophie Mugabe knows me! And even with your short hair, we still look alike. She’ll know who you are the minute she lays eyes on you.”

  Carina nodded. “Which is why we’re not able to go,” she said as she dialed a number on her cell phone and waited for it to ring.

  Curiosity shifted in Gianna’s eyes as she sat waiting for her sister to complete her call. Her smile returned when the party answered on the other end.

  “Graham, honey, it’s me! I need you to go to Florence. Gianna and I really need your help!”

  * * *

  The three most important men in the Martelli women’s lives sat staring at the duo, completely floored by the story they told. Franco shook his head from side to side, his arms crossed evenly over his chest. Graham sat at the counter, nothing about what he’d participated in surprising him. Donovan was the only one who was visibly stunned by what had transpired. He looked from one woman to the other, then shot a glance toward Graham and the family patriarch.

  They had played the audio tapes twice, the first recording of Alessandra and the second of Alessandra and Sophie Mugabe. Both conversations left no doubt of Donovan’s innocence and the twisted plot between the two women. He still didn’t understand how the twins had managed to pull it off.

  “So you actually befriended Alessandra?” he asked.

  Gianna shook her head. “Not me. Carina. That witch was lucky I didn’t smack the mess out of her because I really wanted to hit her.” Disdain painted her expression.

  Carina laughed. “You will never win any awards for your acting.”

  “I’m still confused,” Donovan said.

  Carina leaned across the counter. “Alessandra is narcissistic, and she craves attention. I followed her on Instagram and started commenting on her photos. When we went to the school, I pretended we’d just run into each other, and when I commented on her social media account and flattered her vanity, she couldn’t wait to be my friend,” Carina said with a shrug. “It was Psychology 101, and she fell for it. We just got lucky with the rest of it.”

  “Very lucky,” Graham interjected, “and it’s a good thing, too, because Carina was ready to break into her apartment and commit too many crimes to mention. At least all I had to do was sit at the table next to them, turn on the recorder and sip my drink.”

  “And you actually got that close that you were able to record them in the club?” Donovan questioned.

  Graham nodded. “I even danced with the blonde! My wife gave me very specific orders!”

  “I just want to know how they finagled you into their scheme,” Franco stated.

  Graham shrugged, his broad shoulders pushing toward the ceiling. “You know I can’t say no to your daughter! She scares me!”

  The older man laughed. “Figlio, you better learn before she gets you locked up behind bars one day!”

  * * *

  Both Donovan and Gianna had been excited to turn over copies of the audio tapes to Dante the attorney. After hearing how they’d acquired them and listening to the transmissions, he assured Donovan that he had nothing to be concerned about. “Risolveremo il piu rapidamente possibile,” Dante had said, promising to resolve the matter promptly. It was now just a matter of time before they’d know the outcome.

  The drive back to Maremma was quiet, the two enjoying the quiet and the low melody of the music playing on the car radio. The weather was near perfect—the temperature ideal, the sky a brilliant shade of blue and a bright sun shining above the treetops.

  As Donovan rode shotgun, he was awed by the sheer beauty of the landscape. Minutes passed before he turned to stare at Gianna, reaching a large palm out to caress her thigh. The ease of his touch made her smile.

  She shifted her gaze in his direction, her eyes wafting back and forth between him and the road. “Are you happy, Donovan?” she asked as he trailed his fingers against her profile.

  He smiled “Very. Are you?”

  She nodded. “You make me happy!”

  “Gianna, have you ever thought about living in the United States?”

  She turned her gaze on him and held it for a split second. Donovan felt the vehicle slow down significantly before she refocused her gaze.

  She shook her head. “No, I haven’t,” she answered honestly.

  “Do you think you can ever leave Tuscany?”

  She answered his question with a question of her own. “Would you consider staying?”

  Donovan smiled. “We really need to decide what we’re going to do. I want to make an honest woman of you, and that needs to happen before your father and my mother join forces.”

  She laughed. “Define honest.”

  He smiled. “I’m hoping you’ll be the next Mrs. Donovan Boudreaux.”

  “The next? Was there a last Mrs. Boudreaux?”

  His expression was smug. “No, but you never know. There might be another in the future.”

  Gianna scoffed. “Not if I have anything to say about it!”

  They giggled together softly.

  “So, what do you want to do?” she asked.

  He paused in thought before answering. “I know for certain that I can get work in the United States. I’m not so sure what’s going to happen here. Not that I’m worried about supporting us because we can live quite comfortably off my savings and investments if I never teach another day in my life. But I don’t want to stop teaching.”

  Gianna nodded but said nothing, seeming to fall into thought. It was a good few minutes before she spoke again.

  “This is my home. It’s all I’ve ever known. I never imagined not being able to work the vineyards or help my father with the winery. But...” She hesitated a second time.

  Donovan prodded. “B
ut?”

  She took a deep breath. “But... I will follow you wherever you want to go. I trust that you will always do what will be in the best interest of our family. So...if we need to live in America, that’s where we will live. I can write anywhere.”

  He kissed her cheek. “I love you, Gianna Martelli. I love you with everything in me!”

  Her smile was engaging, emotion misting her bright eyes. “I love you, too, mio caro. I love you, too!”

  “I want babies with you, Gianna. Five or six.”

  Gianna laughed. “Now you’ve lost your mind! One set of twins and we’re done.”

  “You say that now, but I can be quite persuasive. And we might not get twins the first few times, so we’ll have to keep trying,” he teased.

  She pulled the car into the parking area outside the winery. Stepping out of the vehicle, she stood still, her gaze roaming the countryside. She suddenly couldn’t see herself ever leaving the Tuscan heat, a wave of melancholy washing over her. And then she turned to stare at Donovan, the beauty of his smile assuring her that everything would be well no matter where they settled in the world, taking that Tuscan heat with them.

  Reading her mind, Donovan moved to her side, easing his body against hers. With her back pressed against his chest and his arms wrapped around her waist, he pressed his face into her lush curls and kissed the top of her head. The scent of her perfume teased his nostrils.

  In the distance, the sun was just beginning its descent, the wealth of it falling behind the trees in the distance. The sky blazed in shades of red, yellow and purple, a kaleidoscope of colors that made the view look like a priceless work of art.

  “We have the most beautiful sunsets here in Maremma,” she whispered.

  Donovan nodded in agreement as he tightened the hold he had her wrapped in. He spun her around in his arms, his stare meeting hers. “You’ll never miss one,” he said. “This is our home, and here is where I want to see our children raised.”